The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-06-02
4 BLIND INVENTOR,
Constructing q Ma sazinc Gun and Other
Things Without tho Aid of Sight.

Things Without tho Aid of Sight.
English Letter from Vienna.)
[ have had the opportunity of meeting
the inventor of new rifle, Herr Franz
Fortelka, former lieutenant in the
Austrian army, who, during the first
campaign in Bosnia, received q shot in
his right eye, which destroyed the optic
nerve, and, Indirectly, SO affected the left
oyo that the poor officer, now only 2S
years old, has been for the last nine
years totally blind. But without the use
of his oyesight this ingenious man has
invented during these years not only q
new magazine gun, but also two ma.
chimes for the anti-oxidation of iron,
steel and other metals ut cost which
must be called ridiculously small: furth
er, an apparatus for automatical nap.
ping, new micrometer, new sort OF
gunpOwder, not to speak of smaller in.
ventions which found their way into the
lesser industrial establishments of Vienna
and saved the inventor from starvation
as his great discoveries, far from bring,
ing h:m money as yet, necessitate an
outlay which he can afford only by OK.
treme personal privations. "My rifle, y
complained the unfortunate inventor.
"would have long been in tho hands OF
the British government had the advanced
money which [ had obtained from q
private person in London been more
than ,E2O, which did not suffice for the
wages Of one workman, who assists me,
and the necessary material.
''Now at last it is finished, and though
I may full into the fault of oil inventors,
/ consider it the best rifle existing, being
without the disadvantages of other ma
chine rifles, and with many advantages
over them. / can prove by my Austrian
and German patents of somo five years
ago that the straight pull system which
distinguishes every modern fc, and in
itself, without the machine, secures the
double effect, has been my invention.
Upon this and upon other nppropria-
tions in the line by different successful
inventors L do not lay any stress. There
is my new rifle, which, i'll short, has the
following advantages: 1t can be used as
o single loader even with an attached
magazine; cartridges are not thrown into
the magazine in q loose form, but lie one
above the other, without the possibility
of placing them wrongly; the magazine
can be attached or not ut will; all parts
arc solid, no spiral spring exists in the
rifle; the price of my weapon with ROY.
atty and everything else will be under
e.. Every old system, with the excep
ton of Werdpe, can be used for trans.
formation into my rifle at cost of 8 OF
10 shillings-less in the case of Gras
Mauser, Berdan or Beaumont, anC
something more in the case of Henry
Martini"
"And how can you make any inven
tlon, especially such n complicated onc
as a rifle, without, unfortunately, being
able to see the separate parts, and how
are your devices carried out by the work
men?"
81 see with my fingers. And not il
one single case have they deceived me
It's really curious that when great anC
minute measurements orc in question
those who SEQ with their eyes are wrong
and /, with the use of my fingers, an
right. The models for my machine,
against oxidation of metals were entirol,
made be myself from carved wood, witt
the help of string, wire aud breat
crumbs. [ am now devising very com
plicated electric apparatus"